The Kentwood High boys basketball team opened with a bang, but finished with a fizzle Monday night at the ShoWare Center.

Behind 22 points from star guard DaVonte Lacy, fourth-ranked Curtis denied Kentwood 59-43 in the championship game of the West Central/Southwest Bi-District tournament.

Kentwood made an immediate statement on the game’s opening play, when Jason Boyce connected with Taylor Jones on a long alley-oop that gave the Conquerors the instant momentum and a 2-0 lead. In a game that included nine lead changes and one tie in the first half, the Vikings ran away with things in the third quarter to secure the title.

“We wanted to let them know that we were there,” Kentwood coach Brian Davis said of the opening play. “We just didn’t let them know long enough.”

Despite the loss, Kentwood made sure its presence was felt throughout the tournament. The Conquerors (17-8) opened the tournament with a mild upset of Kentridge (75-62) before beating Auburn (63-55) and Olympia (66-49) in succession to earn a berth in the championship game.

“I feel like we accomplished a lot,” said Boyce, who led the Conquerors with 13 points. “Going into districts, not a lot of people gave us any hope going up against Kentridge in the first round. Nobody gave us much of a chance against Olympia or Auburn.”

Kentwood will take the No. 2 seed from the tournament to state. The Conquerors open state Friday night at Juanita High against top-ranked Garfield.

After grabbing the initial lead on the Jones dunk, Kentwood traded buckets with Curtis for much of the first half. Tied 21-21 with just more than three minutes remaining in the second quarter, the Vikings (20-5) went on a 10-4 run to end the half and go on top 31-25 at the break. The Vikings pushed their lead to 37-26 just moments into the third quarter and held the Conquerors at an arm’s length the rest of the night.

Though Davis wasn’t pleased with the end result, the first-year Kentwood coach couldn’t have been much happier about how his team performed during the week-long tournament.

“We had a great tournament,” he said. “Second place in the district tournament is no chump change, good gracious. It’s a gauntlet. One of the toughest districts around with so many good teams. There’s a lot to be built off of this week. We’ve had a ton of fun, played four great teams and learned a lot about ourselves.”
Boyce, who scored a team-high 13 points, was the only Kentwood player to reach double figures.

Kentwood girls move on
It didn’t take long for the Kentwood High girls basketball team to punch its sixth straight state berth.
Kentwood opened the West Central/Southwest Bi-District tournament Feb. 15 with a 58-53 win over Evergreen, then throttled South Kitsap 58-43 to earn the state berth in the first two games of the 16-team tournament. The Conquerors fell to Mount Rainier 58-44 in the semifinals.